The Telescopes Halo Moon
The Telescopes's Halo Moon arrives as a slow-burning experiment in eerie atmospheres and hypnotic trance, and critics are divided over whether its drift into cosmic imagery and feedback is revelatory or indulgent. Across two professional reviews the record earned a 35/100 consensus score, a sign that while some critics hear small miracles in its suspended moments, others find the approach limiting.
Reviewers consistently single out “Halo Moon” and “Shake It All Out” as the album's clearest centers, praising how fuzzed blues and slow-motion beats fold into towering feedback to create immersive washes of sound. Critics note recurring themes of renewal and longstanding influence, with the band weaving bluesy melodies into denatured rhythms so that melody often dissolves into texture. Both professional reviews emphasize atmosphere over hooks, presenting the best songs on Halo Moon as mood pieces where trance and cosmic imagery do the work.
That said, the critical consensus is mixed-to-negative: one review frames the record as a near-miracle that rewards repeated listens, while the other rates it more cautiously and highlights how the haze can obscure songcraft. For readers asking whether Halo Moon is worth listening to, the answer depends on tolerance for feedback-driven composition and extended, hypnotic passages. Below, the full reviews unpack where the album's strengths in atmosphere intersect with limits in clarity and momentum.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Halo Moon
2 mentions
"Halo Moon by the telescopes"— Dusted Magazine
Shake It All Out
2 mentions
"This 17th Telescopes album pushes blues melodies down into a thick layer of fuzz"— Dusted Magazine
Along the Way
2 mentions
Halo Moon by the telescopes
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Shake It All Out
For the River Man
Come Tomorrow
Along the Way
Lonesome Heart
Halo Moon
Nothing Matters
This Train Rolls On
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
The Telescopes’ Halo Moon feels like a small miracle, a record that came "from the sky" and carries that celestial hush into its best moments. The review leans on mystical, hypnotic language to single out the album’s atmosphere as the standout - songs such as “Halo Moon” and “Shake It All Out” are framed as embodiments of that trance. Darryl Sterdan’s tone is reverent and promotional, insisting the album reveals more with each listen and positioning those tracks as the best songs on Halo Moon. The result is an album where the moods and textures, rather than individual hooks, make the best tracks resonate.
Key Points
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The title track, "Halo Moon", is presented as the album’s celestial centerpiece, embodying the record’s hypnotic trance.
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The album’s core strengths are its cosmic atmosphere, sense of renewal, and textures that reveal more on repeated listens.
Themes
Critic's Take
In the reviewer's voice, The Telescopes push the sound of Halo Moon into a haze where the best tracks - notably “Halo Moon” and “Shake It All Out” - stand out for folding bluesy melodies into towering feedback and slow, denatured beats. The writer leans on vivid, fog-bound imagery to praise how those songs let guitars dissolve into dissonance, making them the album's clearest centers. The review frames these songs as the moments where melody and texture meet most memorably, answering which are the best songs on Halo Moon with sustained, immersive washes of sound.
Key Points
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The title track and opening moments best crystallize the album’s blend of blues melody and heavy fuzz.
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Halo Moon’s core strength is its immersive, feedback-rich atmosphere that foregrounds texture over polish.